The Exelon nuclear power plant will be 3,000 megawatts.  The plant will use about 75,000 acre feet of water per year, about 25,000 per reactor.  The question has been raised about the demand and supply of water.  The water required will be about 104 cubic feet per second (cfs).  Currently the Guadalupe is flowing over 500 cfs.  Will there be enough water?  That’s what is being studied by Exelon.  It appears they are going to establish a reservoir to store water.  This reservoir will probably hold about 50,000 acre feet of water.  That would allow the plant to run through a dry spell.  Evaporation losses would be more than balanced by the average annual rainfall.  I doubt if Exelon would invest 10 billion dollars in a nuclear power plant if they thought there would not be enough water.  Everyone knows that corporations are corrupt, evil and greedy, but they are not stupid.  You can’t stay in business if you are stupid. No, the only way to do that is with the help of Congress.

Exelon is going to build this power plant because Texas needs the power.  There are other alternatives to nuclear such as coal, wind, solar.

A 3000 megawatt coal plant would burn a staggering three train loads of coal every day.  It would be the largest disappearing act ever.  Every day three train loads would vanish into thin air...cough!  The value of this coal at $60 per ton would be about $2,250,000 per day.  The coal plant would require less water about 60,000 acre feet per year.  The nuclear plant would consume about 385 pounds of reactor fuel, equivalent to 3,850 pounds of yellow cake worth about $231,000 at $60 per pound.  The spent reactor fuel would have lost only about 2 percent of its potential.  However to fully use it a new type of reactor would be required.  If we used this type of reactor there is enough uranium to supply our needs for a million years, assuming we last that long. 

To produce 3,000 megawatts using wind would require installing wind turbines that generate about 9,000 megawatts.  This is because wind is erratic and the capacity utilization is only about 33 percent.  According to cost data from the EIA these wind turbines would cost about 14 billion dollars and this does not include the cost of the transmissions lines to handle the extra 6,000 megawatts.  And finally there is one more issue that has not really been addressed.  Nuclear power plants have a life of about 40 to 50 years.  I seriously doubt that wind turbines have that long a life, I doubt they last ten years...but that’s my guess.

Solar energy is a good laugh.  According to the EIA solar energy in the USA as of 2007 is actually decreasing not increasing as the media seems to indicate.  Solar energy produces about 1.88 watts per square foot.  To produce 3,000 megawatts would require about 36,600 acres of solar panels or about 57 square miles.  The solar panels are expensive and they have a short life and like the wind turbines they require a lot of maintenance.  And like wind turbines they require extra transmission lines because of their low capacity utilization.  Another problem, it was assumed that the panels were always perpendicular to the Sun’s rays...in other words they automatically tilt and followed the sun. I’m still laughing.